Biltmore app Redevelopment
UX Designer | Project Champion
Role
2021
Year
Chad Evans - In-house developer
Bob O'Brien - In-house developer
Team
The Problem
Our current app was developed in 2016 without consideration for how our guests would want to use the app, or a specific primary target audience. Recent research and app reviews have indicated that our Passholders -- Biltmore's most engaged audience -- feel the app doesn't offer any real benefit to them. Additionally, the framework our current app was built on is at end-of-life and needs to be upgraded immediately.
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Low App store ratings & decreased downloads
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Outdated framework - Ionic v3
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Not a functional or transactional tool - primarily informational
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No longer on-brand
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Navigation is not intuitive or helpful for wayfinding for planning future visits
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Core audience not considered
Goals for New Website
Our goal for this redevelopment was to create a more streamlined and connected digital guest experience. We wanted to quickly guide our visitors to the information that they find most valuable. The new website needed to be emotionally engaging and effectively communicate the Biltmore Experience.
• Increase share of online Ticketing and Lodging sales to 75% of total sales
• Increase website Guest Satisfaction score from 7.7 to 8.5 of 10
• Increase website Task Completion Rates from 68% to 85%
• Create clear visitor funnels for each of our conversion channels
• Implement single sign-on system for our 8 online transactional environments
• Decentralize CMS management, through planned website data structure and role based permission groups
My Involvement in the Redevelopment
• Collaborated with Website Manager to determine redevelopment goals and functional requirements documentation
• Assisted in the creation of the RFP
• Vetted vendors: Researched and sought out vendors nation-wide that appeared to be a good fit, reviewed RFP responses
• Presented project plan to internal stakeholders for buy-in
• Worked with the vendor (Design Sensory) and with company stakeholders to identify key usability metrics for user testing. These differed by department / business group.
• Revised and recommended the site's new Information Architecture after the vendors solutions were not well received
• Worked with the vendor's UI and UX designers to create wireframes for each major section of Biltmore.com and Biltmoreshop.com
• Collaborated with stakeholders and Website Manager to develop a streamlined content plan for each site section
• Worked with vendor to make sure all visual designs were on brand and optimized for the best user experience
• Made design selections on behalf of the company
• Used the new design to re-skin our third-party transaction environments and emails
